iPhone 8 and 8 Plus: Apple deals a blow to grey market sellers

Grey market sellers on Ebay are offering iPhone 8 64GB at Rs 76,000-78,000 with delivery from September 25. The official price of the phone in the country is Rs 64,000.Writankar Mukherjee&Sagar Malviya | ET Bureau | September 21, 2017, 08:32 IST

In recent years whenever Apple launched a new iPhone, hundreds of diehard fans would rush to grey market sellers in places like Mumbai’s Heera Panna market and Delhi’s Gaffar Market to grab the gadget at a high premium weeks before its official launch. Not this time.

Apple’s plan to start selling iPhone 8 and 8 Plus in India just a week after its global launch has severely impacted the country's grey market, which is hardly seeing any pre-bookings, insiders said.

Apple is launching the two new iPhones in India on September 29 and will start prebooking from September 22, the day of its global launch in countries including Singapore, Hong Kong, China and the UAE from where the handsets were mostly sourced by the grey sellers.

This seems to have dealt a body blow to grey market sellers who have been selling iPhones at 30-50% premium over official launch prices, making many fans shell out more than Rs 1 lakh for an iPhone.

A grey market seller in Kolkata’s Fancy Market said so far they have got only two bookings for the iPhone 8 Plus, that too after promising the customers that the new handset will be handed over by September 24. “This is in sharp contrast to earlier years when we would easily have 30-35 bookings,” the person said.

Their premium, too, has shrunk with the new models being offered at Rs 8,000-12,000 higher than the official India price. Grey market sellers on Ebay are offering iPhone 8 64GB at Rs 76,000-78,000 with delivery from September 25. The official price of the phone in the country is Rs 64,000.